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No one knows yet where community mailboxes will be fastened down in Ottawa’s established neighbourhoods, but council’s planning ace predicts acrimony.

“Retrofitting an urban community for public service is fraught with difficulty,” Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume said Thursday, comparing it to plotting new bus routes and stops in neighbourhoods.

Virtually everyone is affected by the change, especially in the case of community mailboxes. All residents will have to leave their homes to get their mail under a new regime being phased in by Canada Post over five years, beginning in some areas of the country later this year. Stopping home delivery and creating community boxes will save $400 million-500 million annually, the agency says.

Community boxes hold individual locked compartments for each address. For many suburban communities and townhouse owners, this is only method of mail delivery they have known.

Gloucester-South Nepean Coun. Steve Desroches, who represents Riverside South and parts of Barrhaven, said new subdivisions plot the locations, and sometimes combine them with other infrastructure, like utility boxes.

“It’s much easier to move into a community that has (mailboxes) planned,” Desroches said.

It’s not the case in older neighbourhoods.

“In some communities it will be very hard to find a place people agree with,” Desroches said. “I anticipate we’re going to have some friction points.”

Installing community mailboxes would have trickle-down implications for City Hall.

Sidewalks would need to be pristine. There could be an increase of stop-and-go traffic around mailboxes. There could be problems with litter if people are tossing junk mail on the box. Plus, the boxes could be magnets for graffiti.

In the standards for developers posted on its website, Canada Post says the community boxes should be located a minimum of nine metres from intersection corners to protect sightlines and not at major intersections.

There’s also the issue of how the city would be compensated by giving up its right-of-ways for community mailboxes.

John Moser, the city’s planning GM, said Canada Post has not yet shared its plans for mail delivery in urban Ottawa.

“We look forward to constructive dialogue with Canada Post as this process goes forward,” Moser said in an e-mail.

Hume, chairman of council’s planning committee, wonders if there will be creative options for locating boxes, such as at arenas or community centres.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a welcome exercise for those communities that are affected,” Hume said. “It’s not change. It’s big change.”

Friction predicted over Canada Post mailbox locations

No one knows yet where community mailboxes will be fastened down in Ottawa’s established neighbourhoods, but council’s planning ace predicts acrimony.

“Retrofitting an urban community for public service is fraught with difficulty,” Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume said Thursday, comparing it to plotting new bus routes and stops in neighbourhoods.

Virtually everyone is affected by the change, especially in the case of community mailboxes. All residents will have to leave their homes to get their mail under a new regime being phased in by Canada Post over five years, beginning in some areas of the country later this year. Stopping home delivery and creating community boxes will save $400 million-500 million annually, the agency says.

Community boxes hold individual locked compartments for each address. For many suburban communities and townhouse owners, this is only method of mail delivery they have known.